Chapter 7 #2
“The anniversary clip hit forty thousand,” Paige says, not looking up from her plate. “In a day. People love a sad old man with a microphone.”
“Former sad old man.”
“Sure, Dad.”
“Is the band done?” Quinn asks.
The table goes a little quieter. I look around at the faces, each one of them part of my career. I sigh heavily and shake my head. “No, the band isn’t done, but we’re also not actively doing anything. Your dad has a bum shoulder, and JD wants to be there for Eden. He hates missing her events.”
“I thought Eden qualified for the Olympics?” Mack asks. “Isn’t that where you and Justine went on your honeymoon?” he directs the question toward Quinn.
“We thought so, but it was a qualifier for a qualifier or something. The process is confusing,” Quinn says. “Eden’s ranked third in the world and could win the whole thing.
“That’s insane,” Mack says.
It is insane. We have an Olympian. Sort of. JD’s kid, but we claim her. She’s ours and we’ll all be there when she takes center stage.
Nick shifts Jett and nods at the wet patch spreading down my shirt. “He likes you.”
“He’s leaking on me.”
“Same thing, with babies.”
Ben reaches for the potatoes, and Elle slides the dish closer before he has to stretch for it. He gives her a look.
“I can lift a bowl, Elle.”
“I know you can.” She doesn’t move the dish back.
“Dad, are we running the same scheme as last time?” Mack asks Nick.
“Ask at practice.”
“I’m asking now,” Mack says.
Nick glares across the table and as much as I hate to admit this, I agree with Nick.
“If you have a team question, you ask when the team is present.”
Mack nods and goes back to eating, putting an end to that conversation.
“Peyton and Elle, can I ask a question about the babies?” Justine asks.
Peyton and Elle say, “yes.”
“How do you tell the boys apart? With Junie, it’s easy. But the boys are identical and all four even look like each other.”
“For me, it’s their demeanor or how they cry,” Peyton says and I pay attention because lord knows I need all the help I can get. “Maverick is wild whereas Jace is mellow and always staring at his surroundings.”
“With Jett and Sonny,” Elle says, “Sonny’s hair curls at the end. And both boys have dimples. Sonny’s is on the right cheek and Jett’s is on the left.”
“Oh, that’s easy.”
Elle nods.
“Thanks, Justine,” I say. “I really needed that lesson.”
“Really?” Elle glares at me and I shake my head slowly. I’ll never admit to their mama that I couldn’t tell them apart.
Somebody asks where my mother is. Bianca’s got the early baby shift tomorrow, so she begged off tonight. Josie makes me promise to send her a plate.
Noah ends up next to me when the noise dies down, scraping the last off his plate. He’s got his mother’s patience and my hairline, poor kid.
“First show went all right, then,” he says.
“Seems like.”
“Mom had it on. Sat through the whole thing.”
“She tell you that?”
“Didn’t have to. I know her.” He bumps my shoulder with his, stands, and lifts a baby off Peyton before she has to ask.
Talisa brings out a milk tart she made, and it’s gone in five minutes. Amelie gets the last slice by asking twice and looking pitiful. Coffee goes around. The babies start to melt down, one by one.
Nick’s got Jett against his shoulder, bouncing him without thinking about it, and he watches the rest of us while he does it. Mack in the middle of a story. Amelie between Paige and Justine. He doesn’t add anything to it.
By the time the plates are cleared and the babies bundled, it’s dark out.
Elle and Ben go first, a twin apiece, Beau winding through their legs. Ben tells me he caught the first show. Elle tells him not to encourage me.
Quinn hugs me too hard and too long and tells me to fly out to LA and drag his father home. Justine thanks Josie for the third time.
Peyton and Noah herd the triplets toward the door, Noah with one of them asleep on his shoulder and a fat diaper bag over his back, Stevie Nicks hot on his heels.
Mack ducks back in for a jacket he forgot, says goodnight to Paige at the foot of the stairs in a voice he thinks is quiet, and is gone before I can make it weird for him.
The Ashfords go together. Talisa carries the leftovers, Amelie half asleep on her feet beside her, Mack already out at the truck. Nick’s last.
“Thanks for the food,” Nick says.
“Don’t make it weird, Ashford.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He goes.
I listen to his truck back down the drive and turn out onto the road.
Then it’s just us. The triplets gone, the teenagers gone, the grown-up kids gone, the house quiet except for the two of us and the wreck of a kitchen.
Josie washes. I dry. We’ve done it ten thousand times, and we don’t talk through most of it. Just the clink of plates, the water running, her handing me a pan with her fingers overlapping mine a half second longer than the job needs. She still does that.
I stack the gold plates back on the high shelf. She hands me the glasses one at a time. The house ticks as it cools.
“Nick looked tired,” she says.
“Nick always looks tired.”
“No. Tired tired.” She passes me the gravy pot. “He sat there holding Jett and watching everybody else’s life happen.” She shrugs. “He’s lonely, Liam.”
“Okay.”
“You should set him up with somebody.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Why not?”
“Because deep down, I can’t stand the man. I’m not going out of my way to find someone to set him up with. He’s my frenemy, Josie. In case you forgot.”
She laughs. “He’d do it for you.”
“He would not.”
“He would, and you know it.” She pulls the plug. The water gurgles down, and she leans back against the sink, drying her hands on the towel she pulls off my shoulder. “Just think about it.”
“I’m not thinking about anything.” There’s no way in hell.
Her face goes soft. She puts her hand flat on my chest, then slides it up to the side of my neck.
“You’re a good man, Liam Westbury.”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
She fists my shirt and pulls me down, and I go. I kiss her in the middle of the kitchen, the counters still stacked with everyone’s plates. She tastes of the wine from dinner. Her free hand slides into my hair, and she takes her time about it.
When she pulls back, her eyes are dark and her mouth is soft.
“Come to bed, Liam.”
I follow her. She knows I’ll follow her anywhere.